Hitherto, it has been known to provide barcodes or other codes to products to enable the identification thereof. Typically, a consumer will read the code and check the code against a source of codes to determine the nature of the product. This may or may not unequivocally signify a genuine product. Counterfeit products can usually be detected by either the absence of the code applied to the products or an incorrect code applied to the products.
In the pharmaceutical industry there is a particular problem with the existence of non genuine products and more particularly so with modern advertising media such as the Internet. The Internet, is a communications medium whereby counterfeiters can cheaply and anonymously advertise non genuine products, such as pharmaceutical products, with the intention to sell those products as genuine products. An unsuspecting consumer is attracted to the products because of the low price compared to the original genuine products. In the case of non genuine pharmaceutical products, there is also a concern for the well being of the consumer if the non genuine products have little or no pharmaceutical benefit because they are made from inappropriate materials. Thus, there is not only the problem for the genuine product manufacturer with counterfeit products, but there is also the well being problem for the consumer.
To date, there is no known mechanism whereby a product can be readily checked in a reasonably reliable manner to determine if it is probable that it is a genuine product. Thus, it would be desirable to provide a mechanism whereby products can be checked to attempt to verify the likelihood of their authenticity, and where such mechanism is more reliable than known mechanisms.